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Recent Articles by Brian
Dashboard Design: Is Maximum Simplicity the Goal?
Should maximum simplicity dictate success? We all love usability these days right? “User experience is important.” Of course it is! But, it doesn’t mean that every user you show the design to is going to, or should immediately be able … Read moreDashboard Design: Is Maximum Simplicity the Goal?
From a data scientist on Medium: “It’s easy to not understand your customer’s needs.”
So a guy walks into a bar and starts talking about unsupervised learning… Ok, not quite. Well actually, where I live in Cambridge, MA, that’s not really so improbable 😉 I found this article on Medium interesting, written by a data scientist … Read moreFrom a data scientist on Medium: “It’s easy to not understand your customer’s needs.”
It’s the translation that makes your data sing – what song are you singing?
Some of you probably know by now that I’m also a musician, and this includes composing for my instrumental jazz/chamber music quintet. What does this have to do with translation of your data? When I talk about data in on … Read moreIt’s the translation that makes your data sing – what song are you singing?
How to solicit *real* needs from users via UX research interviews
Readers of DFA know that I’m big on not immediately giving customers what they asked for, and instead asking the question “why” to learn what the real latent customer needs are. And for you internal analytics folks, remember your employees, … Read moreHow to solicit *real* needs from users via UX research interviews
The Easiest Way to Simplify Your Product or Solution’s Design
Ok, you probably know this one, but let’s dig in a little farther. I recently started to explore using the TORBrowser when surfing on public wi-fi for more security (later finding out that using a VPN, and not TOR, is … Read moreThe Easiest Way to Simplify Your Product or Solution’s Design
(8) invisible design problems that are business problems
Today’s insight was originally inspired by a newsletter I read from Stephen Anderson on designing for comprehension, and I felt like this could be expanded on for analytics practitioners and people working on data products. One of the recurring themes … Read more(8) invisible design problems that are business problems
What internal analytics practitioners can learn from analytics “products” (like SAAS)
When I work on products that primarily exist to display analytics information, I find most of them fall into roughly four different levels of design maturity: The best analytics-driven products give actionable recommendations or predictions written in prose telling a user what … Read moreWhat internal analytics practitioners can learn from analytics “products” (like SAAS)
Failure rates for analytics, BI, and big data projects = 85% – yikes!
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but I recently found out just how many analytics, IOT, big data, and BI projects fail. And the numbers are staggering. Here’s a list of articles and primary sources. What’s interesting to … Read moreFailure rates for analytics, BI, and big data projects = 85% – yikes!
My reactions to the Chief Data Officer, Fall 2017 conference summary
I ran into a an article about the Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Fall conference that summarized some of the key takeaways at the previous year’s conference. One paragraph in the article stuck out to me: … The Great Dilemma – Product … Read moreMy reactions to the Chief Data Officer, Fall 2017 conference summary